More on Noriega
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:43 pm
In comments on the previous post, in which we profiled part of the “Draft Noriega” movement, a reader asked about the connection between Houston Rep. Rick Noriega and notorious Houston Republican financier Bob “Swift Boat” Perry. The short answer: Perry has given Rick Noriega $9,500 since 2000, with $7,000 of that total donated in 2006, according to filings (1, 2, 3, 4 — all PDFs) with the Texas Ethics Commission.
The Houston Chronicle has also reported that Perry and his family were the biggest contributors to Noriega’s wife, Melissa, in her recent successful run for Houston City Council. In all “Perry, his wife, Doylene, their son Jack and his wife, Stefani, gave Noriega $20,000,” the paper reported. That amount nearly matched the entire fund-raising effort of her opponent, Roy Morales. Noriega outspent Morales 5-to-1 in the race. TEC filings did not show any contributions from Perry’s immediate family to Rick Noriega.
According to Bloomberg News, in 2006 Perry surpassed George Soros as the country’s highest political donor, giving more than $9 million to Republican House and Senate campaigns nationwide. That number figures largely into speculation that Perry is backing Noriega in the U.S. Senate primary in order to derail the campaign of his would-be opponent, lawyer Mikal Watts, who is from Corpus Christi and now lives in San Antonio. Watts, a long-time donor to Democratic causes in the state, is known as an excellent fundraiser and a believer in building party infrastructure in Texas. In a discussion last month on Burnt Orange Report, some commenters suggested Perry would abandon his support of Noriega if the Lt. Col. made it to a showdown with Sen. John Cornyn, with Perry going all in on the Republican’s side.
BOR also runs down the recent news of Noriega attracting institutional support, in part in the form of a letter signed by 49 of his House Democratic colleagues encouraging him to run, which you can read below.
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Noriega also announced this week that he has filed the paperwork to form an exploratory committee in the race. This brings him that much closer to an official candidacy.
July 3rd, 2007 at 11:27 am
Matthew,
For the record, Rick has yet to file with the FEC but plans to by early next week at the latest.
Also, I wanted to let you know that the first time Riok met Bob Perry was when Perry visited the George Brown Convention Center when it was turned into a shelter for those forced to flee New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Noriega, as you may know, was asked by Mayor Bill White to oversee operations at the center, and Perry left impressed enough that he became a financial supporter of the Noriegas.
While B. Perry may be a big backer of R. Perry, that clearly didn’t stop Rick Noriega from taking on the Governor’s one-man poltiical takeover of our state’s homeland security program, as detailed in the pages of the Observer.
Rick Noriega also takes pride that he solicited and secured a significant contribution from the “country’s highest political donor” in support of the Ellen Cohen Women’s Shelter in Houston.
September 3rd, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Mr. Aldrete:
That story is demonstrably untrue.
You say Swift Boat Perry “became a financial supporter of the Noriegas” after Perry met Rick in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
In truth, the Texas Ethics Commission Reports reflect that Perry was already one of Rick’s big sugar daddies long before Hurricane Katrina.